


let my love be heard

by lostintranslaation



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) Needs a Hug, Parent Pepper Potts, Pepper Potts Needs a Hug, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Precious Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:02:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21979282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostintranslaation/pseuds/lostintranslaation
Summary: After Endgame, Tony is stuck on Earth as a ghost. Thankfully a certain friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is able to help him ascend. Closure ensues.Title is from "Let My Love Be Heard" composed by Jake Runestad.
Relationships: Pepper Potts & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 11
Kudos: 40





	let my love be heard

**Author's Note:**

> So I watched this Christmas movie yesterday and it gave me the idea for this fic. Enjoy!

Tony stretched out, feeling every bit of his existence. A weird sentence to say, yes, but after you’ve literally felt yourself die, the sensation is incredible. There was no pain. It was a weird feeling, almost like he was unattached to his former body even though he was still inhabiting it. 

He came back sitting on his and Pepper’s bed. The cabin was eerily quiet, the kind of quiet that never existed when Morgan was around. Tony got up and walked out of the room to find Morgan and Pepper cuddling on the couch, both of their faces red and blotchy from crying.

 _We’ll be okay. You can rest now._ Pepper’s words echoed in Tony’s mind. What kind of a rest was this? Is this what eternity would look like for Tony? Being a man of science, of course he’d never believed that there was any kind of afterlife, he thought that when a person dies, it would just feel like a deep sleep after a long and exhausting day.

Tony cleared his throat and neither Pepper nor Morgan acknowledged his presence. 

“Morgan, Pepper, I’m here.” Nothing. He walked over to sit on the coffee table in front of the pair, but still, nothing. He reached out to touch Pepper’s shoulder, but his hand went straight through her. “Pepper?” He looked down at his hands. They seemed real to him.

“I really miss him.” Morgan said. “I wish he was here right now.”

“Daddy will always be with us, baby.” Pepper’s voice cracked as Tony got up from the coffee table and began to walk away. It hurt to see her like this. To know that he caused this. “But now, it’s just us.” she pressed a kiss to Morgan’s forehead. “Just you and me.”

Tony walked out of the cabin. _What’s going on? Why am I still here?_ A million and one questions flooded Tony’s mind and there was only one person Tony thought might have the faintest idea what was going on here. 

The only problem is that that person was in the city. Which was a good two-and-a-half hour long car drive from where Tony was then. At least he had nothing better to do.  
  


Peter walked into school on the first day back after the Blip, hundreds of students flooding into the narrow hallways of Midtown Tech, many of them for the first time in five years. Peter’s eyes scanned the crowd for a familiar face, finally landing on Ned’s. The best friends met in the middle of the hallway, understanding behind their eyes. They embraced each other and Peter let himself be comforted, let himself be told that everything would be alright even though his whole world had been shattered less than a week ago. 

Peter planned on going patrolling that night for the first time since… everything, and it was the only occasion that Peter could remember when he actively dreaded going out as Spiderman. Being in that suit reminded him of things he never wished to remember. Reminded him of being ripped apart cell by cell on Titan. Reminded him of Tony, how he built that suit for him. But Queens needed him. The little guys still needed to be stood up for. So Peter would go anyway. Even though it was the last thing he wanted to do.

Tony stepped off the bus when he finally made it to Manhattan. He was lucky that he’d been at the bus stop when a bus happened to drive up. It would have been an extremely long and lonely walk all by himself. One of the good parts about being a ghost, Tony told himself, is that you don’t have to pay bus fares. He’d only ridden public transportation a few times in his life, but in those times, it was always a hassle to remember the correct change or load his MetroCard. 

He sat in an empty seat, thankful that the bus wasn’t too crowded and there was plenty of space, and tried to figure out what was going on. He was definitely dead. He knew that. But if that were true, why was he here? Could anybody see him? Was this going to be his life now, an aimless wanderer without a purpose? One of the questions, however, was more specific: could Strange see him? Or, worse, what if he can see him, but he can’t help him? Tony shuddered at the thought and closed his eyes. 

When the bus arrived in the city, Tony hopped off at the closest stop to the Sanctum, which was the only place Tony thought Stephen Strange could be living.

“Strange?” He called out as he walked into the building and up the stairs, “Is there anyone in here?” When he reached the top of the stairs, a door creaked open and Tony heard footsteps walking toward him.

Stephen rounded the corner out of his study, coming face-to-face with the last person he would have expected to show up here. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. 

Tony looked down at his hands for the millionth time that day, all the time wondering if this all was some sort of scam. “Can you help me?”

Stephen ushered Tony into his study where they both had a seat. “So, Doc, give it to me straight. What’s going on?” Tony asked, most of the snark and sarcasm from their previous encounters gone, replaced with a meek fear.

Stephen still hadn’t said a word since Tony arrived at the Sanctum. He tried once more to touch Tony, but to no avail, his hand went right through Tony. “I… I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Stephen said, dumbfounded. “It seems that you’re an astral projection, but I don’t know why.” He looked up to meet Tony’s gaze.

“So why am I still here?”

Stephen shook his head. “I… I can’t know for sure, but one time I read of something similar to this happening. It was like the person was stuck here, in-between realms until they experienced something. Had an experience, or gained closure on a subject. Something like that.” He paused to flip through a book. “Ah, yes, here it is. It says, ‘In order for a soul in-between realms to be released and fully ascend, it must show and experience the big love.’ Do you have any ideas of what kind of ‘big love’ you haven’t experienced?” he asked.

Tony thought for a moment, and then it occurred to him. Morgan. It must be her. She must not know how loved she is. That must be why Tony was stuck. “So what do I have to do to ascend?” Stephen looked back down at his book. “It just says that you have to show this ‘big love’ to them. It doesn’t specify how. But,” he said, “it does say that, in a moment of emotional vulnerability between both parties, you may become physically tangible to the other person. And after that moment when the ‘big love’ is expressed, your soul will be released and you should be able to ascend.” Tony nodded.

“Do you happen to know when Morgan and Pepper will be back in town?”

“Actually, they’re supposed to be coming back tomorrow so Morgan can start preschool again.” 

Tony stood up. “Thanks, Strange. I think I know what I need to do.”

“Is there anything I can do for you?” Stephen asked.

“I think I’ll be okay. Thank you, though.”  
  
“No problem.” In saying this, Strange stepped out of his physical body so he was also a form of astral projection, and held out his hand for Tony to shake. Tony took it and thanked him again. “Good luck.” Stephen wished him as he walked out of the room and Stephen stepped back into his physical body.

Peter shrugged on his suit when it finally came time to go patrolling, never having felt like this before going out as Spider-Man. He webbed up his backpack and climbed up the side of the building to get a head start when he started swinging. 

It was a relatively slow night for crime and, after a few hours, Peter took a break on one of his favorite rooftops of NYC to watch the sun set. He sat on the edge of the building and looked out over the skyline. He liked being so far away from everything, so far away he couldn’t even hear the traffic below him. It made his problems seem far away too. Here, it was just him. Just him and his thoughts.

  
  


After his visit with Strange, Tony decided to pay a last visit to a building that had become very familiar in the past five years. After looking through surveillance videos from before the Snap, Tony saw that Peter would come sit on the roof of this building often, and it wasn’t hard to see why. It was taller than the other skyscrapers of NYC, which made it a perfect lookout spot to see the city skyline. But the real reason he visited this spot so often: it made Tony feel closer to Peter.

He walked up the stairs and hoped that the door to the roof would be open. Getting around was a little difficult when you couldn’t touch anything around you. 

He rounded the last corner to see, much to his relief, an open door. When he walked out to the roof, he was greeted with the back of a familiar figure sitting on the edge of the rooftop.

“Peter!” The name escaped Tony’s lips before he could stop it. Peter probably couldn’t even see him, so what was the point?

Peter’s masked head whipped around upon hearing his name and he sat there in shock after he heard where it came from. After a couple moments, a tentative, “Mister Stark?” came from the teen.

“It’s me, kid.”

Peter sprung up from where he was sitting and flung himself at Tony, but he was still not able to touch him. Peter ripped off his mask, dropping it at his feet, and stared at Tony, blinking hard a couple of times to clear his eyes.

“Mister Stark?” Peter’s voice cracked, “What’s going on?” The kid swayed on his feet a little and Tony tried to grab Peter’s shoulder, forgetting that he was intangible.

“Easy, Spider-Baby, come here, sit.” Tony beckoned over to the lip of the roof and the two of them sat down.

“How are you here right now? I thought you were de-”  
  
“I am.” Tony said. “At least, I think I am.”

It was silent for a moment, and then, “So how are you here right now?”

“I… really don’t know. Strange says I haven’t ‘ascended’ yet because I haven’t shown ‘big love’ yet, whatever that means. I think I’m supposed to say goodbye to Morgan, so I’m waiting for her and Pepper to come back into town tomorrow.”

Peter took a shaky breath, “So… you’re still dead.” Tony nodded. “And… the next time you leave, you’ll never come back?” Tony flattened his lips into a straight line and nodded again. A sob escaped Peter’s lips and he hid his face in his hands. “I thought- just for a second I thought-”  
  
“Shhhh Pete, it’s okay.” He tried to pull Peter closer to him, but it still didn’t work. Tony would never get used to his own intangibility. “It’s going to be okay.”

“I… I already miss you.” Peter admitted. 

“I know, kiddo.” he said, “But it will be okay. You are going to live such a full and exciting and happy life that, one day, you won’t even think about me.” Peter looked up at him. 

“I know it hurts now. But it will get better. I want you to know that I am so, so proud of you, Peter.” When he said that, something changed, something shifted in Tony, he could feel it in his bones. He could feel himself again. He could feel the cool concrete underneath him and he could feel the clothes on his body and the air in his lungs. He reached out to Peter again, this time intentionally.

And his hand didn’t go through. He pulled Peter into a tight hug, both of them desperately clinging to the other. “Those five years were awful, Pete. I could hardly live with myself. I had to get you back. I had to. Because,” he pulled away from Peter to look into his bloodshot eyes. “Because I love you. I love you, Peter.”

The teen clung to Tony again, never wanting to let go. “I love you too, Mister Stark.” Tony felt that thing inside him switch again, leaving Peter to collapse onto the concrete roof. He looked down at his hands, which were slowly but surely fading into transparency.   
  
“Mister Stark, what’s happening?” Peter hiccuped. 

“I… I think it’s time for me to go, Pete.”

“No! No, please don’t leave, please don’t leave me again, please,” Peter begged, reaching desperately at Tony, but it was useless. 

“Peter,” Tony tried to make Peter calm down, but it didn’t work. “Peter, you need to stop!” The teen looked up at his fading mentor with tears in his eyes. “ _Kid_ ,” Peter’s lip trembled as he tried to hold back his tears. “This isn’t goodbye. Just… see you later."

“It feels like goodbye.”

“It doesn’t have to, Pete.” Tony was fading faster now, his message more urgent. “I need you to promise me something.” Peter nodded. “Live your life. Don’t hold anything back. Be yourself. Do what you know to be true. And,” he added, “look out for Morgan for me. I think she’s going to be a little troublemaker when she gets older.”  
  
Peter snorted. “I can do that.”

“I love you kid.” He felt himself fade away again, this time for real. 

As Tony went into the unknown, he heard Peter’s final words to him echo against the walls of the afterlife. 

“I love you too, Mister Stark.”

**Author's Note:**

> Who wants to cry now? Me too. Thanks for reading!


End file.
